BNSF line toward Paducah Kentucky

[JoJames]

With all this talk about starting interchange at Smithboro with CSX
Can anyone tell me if the line has the capacity to run extra traffic? How many trains does it currently see in 24 hours? What are the crew districts? Does this line have any trackage rights used by foreign railroads or does the BNSF run on someone else's trackage?

[cbehr91]

With all this talk about starting interchange at Smithboro with CSX
Can anyone tell me if the line has the capacity to run extra traffic? How many trains does it currently see in 24 hours? What are the crew districts? Does this line have any trackage rights used by foreign railroads or does the BNSF run on someone else's trackage?

The only traffic I know of is a local (I'm guessing from either Beardstown, Peoria, or maybe even Galesburg) and Kentucky Power and Light coal trains. They use trackage rights on CN and P&L around Paducah. It's mostly dark territory but there appears to be a fair amount of sidings.

[bn13814]

With all this talk about starting interchange at Smithboro with CSX
Can anyone tell me if the line has the capacity to run extra traffic? How many trains does it currently see in 24 hours? What are the crew districts? Does this line have any trackage rights used by foreign railroads or does the BNSF run on someone else's trackage?

The only traffic I know of is a local (I'm guessing from either Beardstown, Peoria, or maybe even Galesburg) and Kentucky Power and Light coal trains. They use trackage rights on CN and P&L around Paducah. It's mostly dark territory but there appears to be a fair amount of sidings.

I'm pretty sure the local comes out of Centralia. Coal traffic is probably down a bit, and this line already sees about two loaded and two empty oil trains a day as far as Toland (from which BNSF reaches Metro East via UP trackage rights).

[chriiis]

I believe there are a pair of locals out of Centralia, one south to Paducah, the other north... to Beardstown?

UP has trackage rights over BNSF/CN from a little south of Marion,Il to the PAL at Paducah, mainly Colorado coal going to the barge dumpers at Beaver Dam.

There's also a pair of large power plants just northwest of Metropolis,Il (one is Joppa, which is served by UP). Curiously, the last time i was down that way (6+ years ago) there was a short string of some sort of brand new narrow gauge engines for export to South America on flat cars sitting on the siding at the industry between Metropolis and the closer generating station. It made that foggy 6am morning commute to work that much more mysterious.